Antonio Banderashas come a long way since he made his Hollywood debut in 1992'sThe Mambo Kings, but he still remembers the journey it took to become theOscar-nominated movie starthat he is.
While reflecting on his career in a recent interview withThe Times, the 65-year-old recalled believing that Hollywood was "off limits to Spaniards," and having the thought reinforced by the industry's executives. He told the outlet that when arriving in America, he was told that as a Spanish actor he would only make his mark by playing villains in Hollywood.
"They said, you are here, like the Blacks and the Hispanics, to play the bad guys," he claimed. "The problem was a few years later I had a mask, hat, sword and cape and the bad guy was Captain Love, who was blond and had blue eyes. Even more important isPuss in Boots, because it's for young kids. They see a cat that has a Spanish, even an Andalusian accent and he's a good guy."
Before Banderas starred inMambo Kings, he was a regular player in the films of Spanish auteurPedro Almodóvar. He made his screen debut in the filmmaker's 1982 featureLabyrinth of Passion, then went on to star in four more films for Almodovar.
After successfully transitioning to Hollywood, Banderas starred in a string of American movies, includingPhiladelphia(1993),Interview With the Vampire(1994),Desperado(1995),Evita(1996),The Mask of Zorro(1998), and theSpy Kidstrilogy. In 2003, he was nominated for a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway revival ofNine.
"I didn't speak English, but little by little I made a career for myself there. I later married an American woman [Melanie Griffith] and my life changed, my insecurities disappeared," Banderas toldThe Times.
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It was a heart attack in 2017 that turned the actor's life completely around. His harrowing health scare served as "a really serious warning," he told the outlet. "It changed the way I look at life."
"I thought I was going to die, and it made me understand life in a deeper, more complex way," he said. "I detached from things that are not important any more —the car, and this and that — and then I just put my attention in family, friends and in recovering... well, the essence of why I became an actor."
Banderas chose to move back to his home city of Málaga, Spain, where he currently lives in the city's historic center with his longtime girlfriend Nicole Kimpel, whom he started dating in 2014 following his divorce from Griffith — with whom he shares daughter Stella Banderas, now 29.
He also returned to his theater roots by buying a not-for-profit theatre in Malaga with which he hopes to chip away at Spain's "huge inferiority complex."
"Faced with death, it made me look back and realize that I am, in fact, a theatre actor," the actor added. And of his theatre, Teatro del Soho, Banderas said it fulfills his passions in a way that Hollywood never did, "I have never been so happy. It keeps me in touch with my roots, my neighborhood, my people. I haven't lost that connection over the years. Quite the opposite."
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